This is me officially giving up. One day I will write a novel, but that day is not today. Somehow, I can manage to update the blog with Rachel, but I can't squeeze a word out of my novel while she is awake.
She being the high-energy baby that she is, well, that means I can only work on my novel between 10 or 10:30 pm until whenever I go to bed.
I can't do it anymore. I must sleep. I must clean my house. I must finish a million other projects that I have going. I must take care of my baby.
So, sorry to disappoint, but I'm going to bed.
I just got Rachel to go to sleep. She only napped for an hour today. I've been up with her all day. She's just one of those babies who thinks that sleep is optional. When she's asleep, she likes it a lot. But she fights naptime. She fights bedtime.
I'm not really sure what to do about that because apparently having a bedtime routine is good for a child. I feel like I need to spring bedtime on her so that she doesn't wig out. If I can trick her into falling asleep then we're good to go, but the minute I dim the lights and put on soft music and dress her in PJs, she loses it.
Andrew wasn't home tonight, so I didn't even try to do a bedtime routine. There's no way I could stand the screaming.
Instead I just tricked her into falling asleep by making her think that we weren't going to bed yet. I left the lights on and didn't cover her up with a blanket. Under the false comfort of not going to bed, Rachel fell asleep and has been out for about a half hour now. I just don't get it.
Maybe Auntie Josie, who also has never been very fond of sleeping, will tell me the secret to getting Rachel to go to bed. Is there one? Or is she doomed to be a non-napper, non-bed-goer for the rest of her life?
Were you doing NaNoWriMo? Also, what was your novel about?
ReplyDeleteI was going to do NaBloPoMo but I gave up on that, too. Don't feel bad. Our kids just don't sleep enough.
I was doing NaNoWriMo, yes. I think it's a great idea. I just think I have very little time to devote to it right now.
ReplyDeleteMy book was about a girl making poor choices and needing to recover from them.
Thanks for making me feel better :)
I feel for you with your little non-sleeper. Matthew wasn't a sleeper either, which explains why his naps are non-existent nowadays. I'm trying to remember what we did with him - for the first little while we had him sleeping at night in our small portable swing. And then for a while the best place that he slept was in his carseat! We would put it in our bedroom closet. ;) Maybe it was something about that half upright position, I don't know. Good luck - the joys of parenthood - we just have to keep trying things. I like your tricking her that it wasn't bedtime. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping our little girl is going to be a much better sleeper, but maybe that's too much to hope for...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, our closet is a nice walk-in closet so it's not like we were stuffing him into a small confined space or something. ;)
Josie still has trouble sleeping and I suspect she always will...so no advice from this corner.
ReplyDeleteNancy were you writting a Charlie (esq) book. Oh my. Okay the sleep thing is what it is. Some kids are great at sleeping. Some kids suck. Some kids you can force to conform to some degree. Some you can't. Ezra used to fight. Now he sleeps good at night but he hasn't taken a nap since Jordan. I miss those Jordan naps. They helped the hot part of the day go by. Now though if I mention the word he shots me death rays. Baby sister Grace follow his lead. Even when she should have been taking two naps a day she wouldn't. I'm lucky if she will take one. She hates it. She also hates going to bed at night. I put her in bed and she screams. She says, "Mama, nana, mama" and often accompanies the whole thing with fist shaking. I say, "I don't care no nap baby. Cry it out." And she does. The sad thing is I do care though. I feel like a horrible mother. But bedtime is when I get to do things like clean my dishes, and talk to my husband, and think. So there is no choice. She must sleep at night or scream in her own room. And so I guess I just must continue to feel like a horrible mother.
ReplyDeleteI had trouble sleeping as a child, so I have great sympathy for my children who have had trouble sleeping. I had, every night, horror-movie calibre nightmares, so naturally I was afraid to go to sleep. These continued until I was about 30 years old. I know that some of my children have also inherited the nightmare tendency. Of course, a baby can't tell you if they are having terrible nightmares. Mine were not caused by TV--I grew up watching innocuous things like "The Friendly Giant" and "Mr. Dress-up." I don't know why I had them, or where they came from! But I do know they made sleeping a pretty horrible experience. --Nancy's mom.
ReplyDelete